The other ominous bit of news was that Putin was about to sign a decree banning the reporting of Russian deaths during “special operations” in peacetime—as it had long been banned in wartime. Putin wanted to bury any evidence of battle deaths in Ukraine, because two-thirds of the Russian population opposed the idea of sacrificing Russian soldiers to grab back pieces of Ukraine. “Some watchers can see only one plausible reason for the change,” noted the Washington Post. “Russia is gearing up for another military push into Ukraine.”
